Friday, February 22, 2008

A few notes on the Dems' nomination battle

1. Obama's rhetoric is vapid and empty. That is not an accident. The hope/change message is specifically designed to hide the fact that he's accomplished nothing and that he's a Euro-style socialist and plans to govern like one.

2. The reason the Hillary v. Obama campaign has centered around personality, identity politics and plagiarism charges is because there's not a dime's worth of difference between the two policy-wise. They both are socialists. It reminds me of that Futurama episode that featured two clones running against each other for president.
John Jackson: "It's time someone had the courage to stand up and say: I'm against those things that everybody hates."
Jack Johnson: "Now, I respect my opponent. I think he's a good man. But quite frankly, I agree with everything he just said."
John Jackson: "I say your three cent titanium tax goes too far."
Jack Johnson: "And I say your three cent titanium tax doesn't go too far enough."
To paraphrase:
Hillary: "I say your plans for socialized medicine/huge tax increases/immediate withdrawal from Iraq go too far."
Obama: "And I say your plans for socialized medicine/huge tax increases/immediate withdrawal from Iraq don't go too far enough."
That's why this race has descended into name-calling and bickering over who said what about Martin Luther King.

3. Obama speaks as if everyone knows that far left/liberal positions will solve whatever problem he's talking about, but that special interests and political bickering get in the way. That's extremely naive, but typical of a liberal point of view. The liberal position is the default position and dissent isn't just wrong, but should be ignored and laughed at because it is evil and divisive and stands in the way of "progress." The reason there is political bickering is because a lot of people disagree and think that more big government programs aren't a solution to anything and in fact, create more/new problems (that liberals try to solve with another big government program and the cycle repeats itself).